The soil fungus Morchella crassipes, also known as thick-footed morel, is a decomposer as well as a beneficial mycorrhizal fungus that forms symbiotic relationships with plants. The thick-footed morel is also a bacterial farmer. Here are five characteristics of human agriculture that the thick-footed morel also uses to farm the bacteria Pseudomonas putida.

1. Cultivation

In human agriculture, improving a crop's growth conditions is cultivation. Researchers saw that the thick-footed morel was producing compounds that helped P. putida grow. In fact, P. putida grew significantly more with the help of the thick-footed morel than without it.

2. Harvesting

Researchers found that the fungus was harvesting bacteria when conditions favored resource storage. The fungus are also likely eavesdropping on signals between bacteria to detect how dense the bacteria are growing before harvesting them. To prove the fungus was receiving a benefit from the bacteria, the scientists labeled carbon molecules in glucose and observed the labeled molecules moving from bacteria to fungus. This study is the first to demonstrate carbon transfer from bacteria to fungi.

3. Storage

The thick-footed morel develops structures called sclerotia, which aid in survival by allowing the fungus to store harvested carbon from the bacteria. The fungus can access these nutrient stores when external resources are scarce, much like a grain silo for humans. The researchers washed the storage structures repeatedly and discovered that hundreds of thousands of bacteria are attached to each of the structures. In fact, scientists observed that the thick-footed morel benefited with a reduced stress response.